Sean Parker Donates Another $500,000 to California Legalization Measure

2/16/2016

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Sean Parker, billionaire philanthropist and former President of Facebook, has doubled his donation to the California Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA).

Campaign finance records show that Parker, who first put $500,000 toward AUMA earlier this year, has donated another half a million dollars in support of the bill.

If approved by voters, AUMA would legalize small amounts of cannabis in California for personal possession and use by adults 21 and older. Currently, the proposal’s supporters are collecting signatures to get it on the November ballot, and Parker just gave them a big boost.

Backers have given some $2.25 million in support of the proposal. Besides Parker’s million, money has been flowing in from WeedMaps and the Drug Policy Alliance, each of which gave $500,000, as well as $250,000 from Progressive Auto Insurance chairman Peter Lewis’s political action committee.

Parker has yet to say what his reasons are for putting $1 million behind the campaign, but AUMA’s backers aren’t complaining. AUMA now has more money on hand than did Proposition 19, the previous attempt to legalize cannabis in California. George Soros donated $1 million to Prop. 19 the week before it was voted on, but besides Soros, the only real funder behind the campaign was Oaksterdam University founder Richard Lee, who spent $1.9 million on it. In contrast, Oregon’s Measure 91 had almost $7 million behind it, or $5 per vote.

Although Parker’s reticence has only fueled the mistrust of some in the cannabis industry regarding AUMA, Anthony Johnson, the  chief petitioner of Oregon’s Measure 91, says Californians should still get behind it.

“If it’s better than prohibition, you should support it,” he said.

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Washington Passes Bill for Industrial Hemp Research Plots

2/16/2016

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The Washington state Senate passed SB 6206 last week, which authorizes certain individuals to grow pilot crops of industrial hemp for research purposes. The bill passed on a vote of 48-1.

Though Washington was among the first states to legalize recreational cannabis, it has remained behind the times in regards to industrial hemp cultivation, until now.

SB 6206 is inspired largely by the 2014 Farm Bill, which opened up the opportunity for states with hemp cultivation laws to begin planting pilot crops without fear of federal repercussions. Hemp farmers would have to register with and be licensed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA). Individuals with a felony drug offense from within the last 10 years would be barred from the program, though hemp itself is non-psychoactive.

“This is the responsible route to take,” said Washington hemp lobbyist Joy Beckerman. “Our department of agriculture has gotten impressively sophisticated year by year.”

WSDA policy assistant Steve Fuller told Capital Press that he’s been consistently receiving at least one phone inquiry per week about the legal status of industrial hemp. “There has been a good amount of interest in the possibilities,” he said. “Anytime there’s a new agricultural opportunity out there, we like to try to support it.”

The WSDA said it will need $145,000 for the program, which could be ready to roll out by the 2017 growing season.

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Oregon's state capitol building, pictured on a sunny winter day.

Oregon Legislature Considers Major Cannabis Changes

2/16/2016

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On Monday, Oregon state lawmakers voted on some potentially serious changes to current marijuana laws.

The 35-day session of the Oregon legislature began February 1st, and has been packed with legislation to raise the minimum wage, overhaul medical and recreational marijuana, and attempt to solve the housing crisis. But Republicans have employed a rarely-used procedural move that forces fellow lawmakers to read every single bill in its entirety, out loud — delaying votes on important legislation.

One of the first marijuana bills on the docket on Monday, HB 4014, removes the two-year residency requirement on out-of-state investors wanting to get a piece of Oregon’s legalization pie. The bill’s other provisions give veterans a significant discount on registration fees for obtaining a medical marijuana card, and provides other medical benefits.

The 51-page bill was read out loud the legislature, taking hours, and stranding many lawmakers who were supposed to be meeting on other committees to debate renter relief legislation.

After the read-aloud session was finally over, the bill passed 48-11.

Additional measures that were supposed to be addressed on Monday: HB 4094, which would relieve banks from criminal liability for doing business with the cannabis industry, and is expected to open up banking for the currently cash-only marijuana business in the state; and SB 1511, which would allow tax-free sales of medical marijuana to card-holding patients.

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New Mexico Senate Blocks Move to Let Voters Decide Recreational Cannabis Issue

2/15/2016

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Legislators in New Mexico defeated a proposed bill that would have put the issue of cannabis legalization into the hands of voters.

The New Mexico Senate voted down Senate Joint Resolution 5 by a vote of 24-17. The resolution, sponsored by Senator Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque), would have put the question of legalizing recreational cannabis to voters this November.

Voters would have been given the option of legalizing marijuana for recreational possession and use by adults 25 or older. The proposal had initially put the age requirement at 21, but it was amended to change the minimum age to 25.

In the event that voters approved the proposal, the state legislature would have had to pass legislation to create a recreational cannabis regulatory system.

Prior to the vote Sunday, Republican lawmakers argued against the bill. Senator Sander Rue (R-Albuquerque) voiced concerns that children would be at risk of getting a “contact high” from being near adults who were smoking cannabis. Sen. William Sharer (R-Farmington) claimed that today’s cannabis is “so potent, it becomes addictive.”

Six Senate Democrats were among those who voted against the resolution, though it’s unlikely that the bill would have passed the Republican-controlled House.

More than 60% of New Mexicans support legalizing retail cannabis, according to poll numbers from January.

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Washington Experiences First Cannabis Recall Due to Pesticides

2/15/2016

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For many months, marijuana product recalls stemming from the use of prohibited pesticides have been a consistent problem in Colorado, while Washington seemed, for a while, to be free of such concerns. On Friday, however, Washington-based cannabis wholesaler Evergreen Herbal issued the state’s first voluntary pot product recall due to pesticide concerns.

The recall is thanks to unfortunate growing mishaps by two producers — New Leaf Enterprises and BMF Washington — who were recently investigated by the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) for the use of prohibited pesticides.

New Leaf Enterprises, makers of the popular Dama line of cannabis products, has been fined $2,500 for a first violation and was given a temporary stop sale order from the LCB. New Leaf co-owner Boris Gorodnitsky managed to get the stop sale lifted after privately testing his products and the products of several competitors for pesticides. It was shown that the traces of prohibited pesticides uncovered by the LCB were in fact only residual traces inherited from New Leaf’s mother plants, which had been originally sourced from the unregulated medical market, where pesticide control was not as prevalent.

BMF Washington was also issued a $2,500 fine, but an investigation has revealed that the pesticide issues at BMF were much more rampant — of BMF’s 17 pesticides that the LCB investigated, 12 were in fact prohibited and were being used directly as part of the cultivation process.

Evergreen Herbal announced its voluntary product recall via press release on Friday evening. The three products facing recalls are all high-CBD edibles: the Hibiscus Quencher, Strawberry Quencher, and CBD Dark Chocolate 420 Bar. According to the press release, these three products were at one point produced using Dama CBD oil.

Only the Evergreen Herbal products that were manufactured before November 12, 2015 may be affected, but CEO Marco Hoffman believes that — even though most of the affected products have likely already been distributed — it was the responsible decision to stick with a voluntary recall.

In an exclusive interview with Ganjapreneur, Hoffman pointed out that even though these are particularly regrettable circumstances, “I think it’s really important that we realize that no-one has gotten sick…. And how ultra responsible the people in the cannabis industry are.”

“If only every other industry acted as we did, we would live in a completely different world right now,” Hoffman said. “I think they both made honest mistakes and they should be given the ability to learn from it.”

The press release issued by Evergreen Herbal is attached below:

Today, we learned of the article in The Seattle Times regarding prohibited pesticides used in recreational marijuana produced by New Leaf (Dama). We have determined that the only Evergreen Herbal products that may be affected are products that contain CBD oil purchased from Dama. The affected batches were manufactured before November 12th, 2015.

Please note that NO Dama flower, trim or oil has been used in the production for our LoudVape concentrates (Live Resin, Wax & Shatter, and Cartridges). This distinction is important because the CBD Dama Oil was limited to Evergreen Herbal CBD edibles (Hibiscus Quencher, Strawberry Quencher, and CBD Dark Chocolate 420 Bar). According to a Dama representive their CBD oil did not test positive for the chemical. The chemical deemed dangerous, myclobutanil, is most harmful when heated and inhaled. More information can be found here:

http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/marijuana/pot-products-recalled-in-colorado-for-pesticides-but-not-in-washington/

Evergreen Herbal, in its commitment to safety and integrity, is issuing a voluntary recall of products containing Dama oil. This is a voluntary recall and no formal recall has been mandated by the WSLCB. The lot numbers for edible products containing Dama oil are listed below. Our commitment to high quality and safe products will continue to be our priority, and we will gladly address all questions and concerns.

Your understanding and patience while we work to resolve this issue is appreciated. Thank you for your continued business and support.

Last Four Digits
Strawberry – 2605, 2476, 1357, 1913, 0605
Hibiscus – 2119, 1788
CBD Dark Chocolate – 5430, 5742, 5429

Sincerely,

The Evergreen Herbal team

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New Hampshire House Kills Cannabis Legalization Proposal

2/12/2016

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The New Hampshire House has voted against a bill that would have legalized the possession and cultivation of cannabis, as well as established a regulatory system for its commercial sale. The law, House Bill 1694, was one of three legalization proposals facing the House this session.

The bill would have included a hefty excise tax of $530 per ounce of cannabis flower and $15 per ounce of anything else derived from cannabis.

HB 1694 was sponsored by Reps. Geoffrey Hirsch (D-Merrimack), Joseph Lachance (R-Hillsborough), John O’Connor (R-Rockingham) and Mario Ratzki (D-Merrimack).

Rep. Hirsch commented that HB 1694 would have provided New Hampshire citizens with “…a controlled, tested, labeled, and less harmful alternative to alcohol” — a perfectly legal substance which in the U.S. alone claimed 50,000 lives last year, reports Gary Rayno of the State House Bureau.

The New Hampshire House has passed decriminalization bills in the past, but each time the Senate has eventually shot them down.

Cannabis reform is guaranteed to be a hot topic this election season, with several other New England states currently considering legalization laws and a growing number of voter initiatives coming online elsewhere that are aimed at the repeal of cannabis prohibition.

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Marijuana Policy Project Launching New MMJ Initiative in Ohio

2/12/2016

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The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) plans to launch a medical marijuana initiative in Ohio with new organization “Ohioans for Medical Marijuana,” after last year’s “Issue 3” by ResponsibleOhio failed at the polls.

The new initiative would allow the opening of state-licensed dispensaries, give patients suffering from serious conditions such as cancer and Crohn’s disease access to medical cannabis, and allow home cultivation. It’s a more restrictive program than the one pitched to voters last year by the now-defunct ResponsibleOhio, which critics claimed would have established a cannabis monopoly in the state.

Mason Tvert, the MPP’s Director of Communication, said that the failure of Issue 3 doesn’t reflect the national tone on medical marijuana.

“It only reflects where Ohio voters stand on a specific and rather unique proposal in an off-election year.” As many as nine out of ten Ohio voters supports legalizing medical marijuana, and 56 percent of the state’s voters support legalizing recreational marijuana.

Ohioans for Medical Marijuana has just begun its work, said Tvert. “We are in the very initial stages of this process—filing a committee, starting to build a campaign team, and conducting outreach to potential coalition partners and donors.”

Another group called Legalize Ohio also plans to put an initiative for full recreational legalization in front of voters in November, ensuring 2016 will be an interesting year for cannabis legalization in Ohio.

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Pennsylvania Medical Cannabis Law is Stalled, But Not Dead

2/12/2016

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“We need to get this done,” Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf told a crowd of supporters at the Pennsylvania State Capitol medical marijuana rally held on February 8th, 2016.

The rally was to show support for Senate Bill 3, the bill to allow Pennsylvanians suffering from certain conditions to use medical marijuana to alleviate their pain. The bill was passed in the state Senate, but stalled when it reached the House of Representatives. In the House, more than 200 amendments to the bill were proposed by representatives and it still has not been called to a vote. At the support rally, Governor Wolf placed the blame for the delay on Speaker of the House Mike Turzai, answering “why don’t you go ask him?” and gesturing toward Turzai’s office when a member of the crowd asked why the bill had not been passed yet.

Multiple polls have shown that the majority of Pennsylvania residents are in favor of a state law allowing the use of medical marijuana. The most conservative measure of public opinion, found through a poll conducted by Robert Morris University, found that 67.5% of Pennsylvania residents polled were in support of such a measure. Other polls, including ones conducted by Quinnipiac University and the Mercyhurst Center for Applied Politics, found that 69% to 88% of Pennsylvania voters were supporters of medical cannabis. This is in line with national polls, which have found that approximately 80% of American adults are in favor of legalizing marijuana for medical use.

So why hasn’t the bill been passed already?

Because opponents in the House are doing all that they can to keep it from passing. Initially, Turzai assigned the bill to the House Health Committee, which is chaired by Representative Matt Baker, who stated that we do not have sufficient evidence of marijuana’s medical benefits, citing the white paper “Is Marijuana Medicine?,” released by the Pennsylvania Medical Society. He further argued that it would be unwise to approve its use while the FDA has not officially done so.

A House member then filed a discharge petition that brought the bill to the House Rules Committee, where a new version was drafted by a bipartisan group of representatives. Then came the amendments and budget issues.

“The budget blew everything up. There was no oxygen to discuss anything mildly controversial. That’ll change,” Representative Peter Schweyer told Bill White of The Morning Call in an interview. “There is a segment of the Republican caucus who will do everything to kill it, including Chairman Baker. But I also know a majority of House members support this, including a number of Republicans.”

Progressive marijuana reform can’t come soon enough for many Pennsylvanians, which was noted by Schweyer in the interview and Wolf at the rally. Facing the mock-up doctor’s office full of supporters dubbed the “Still Waiting” room at the state Capitol, Wolf did not mince words about his feelings on the issue.

“Get it to my desk, and I’m going to sign it,” he said.

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Vermont Police Dogs No Longer Being Trained to Detect Cannabis

2/11/2016

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In a move that showcases the national spread of cannabis normalization, police dogs in Vermont — in anticipation of the state’s likely legalization of marijuana — are no longer being trained to recognize the plant’s smell.

Robert Ryan, head K-9 training coordinator for Vermont, told The Times Argus that the change was actually first proposed last year, though not put into effect until this year’s course.

Currently, Vermont is poised to become one of the first states in the nation to legalize cannabis through legislative action, not a voter initiative. Legislation to such an end is expected to soon appear in the state Senate for discussion.

Cannabis, because of its potent odor, is easier than most other substances for dogs to learn to detect, Ryan explained. “If for some reason it doesn’t become legalized, it’s an odor that [dogs] can be trained to alert on later,” he said.

“The dogs that are already trained to smell marijuana are still going to be used,” Ryan said, though they would be reserved only for situations where cannabis would still be worth detecting — like prisons and public schools, for example.

 

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California Lawmaker Introduces New Bill for 15 Percent Tax on MMJ

2/11/2016

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Under a new bill introduced Wednesday by state Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), called the Marijuana Value Tax Act, California would see a tax hike up to 15 percent on medical marijuana to fund land restoration and rehabilitation programs.

The tax could go even higher if SB987 becomes law, as the 15 percent figure does not include local taxes that cities and counties may choose to levy. Eddie Miller, chief strategy officer for GreenRush.com, said, “I won’t say it’s not excessive — it is excessive, but it really provides a budget for the state to make it a legitimate industry like alcohol, tobacco or even gambling.”

The new bill could bring in $100 million in tax revenue to California, a state that claims “steep costs” associated with marijuana-related activities — mainly cultivation. Last year, Former Republican state Sen. George Runner described the effect of these activites as “trespass[ing] on public lands, water theft and unregulated use of pesticides.”

The new tax comes after a regulatory framework was finally put in place last year on licensing marijuana-related businesses. California’s legal medical marijuana industry went unregulated for nearly two decades.

Several ballot initiatives are being proposed to legalize recreational marijuana in November. One in particular would use the same tax structure as the new proposed medical cannabis tax.

To pass into law, the bill will still need to win approval from two-thirds of state lawmakers.

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Anchorage Assembly Finalizes Recreational Cannabis Regulations

2/11/2016

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The Anchorage Assembly finalized regulations for the recreational cannabis industry this week, The Alaska Journal of Commerce reports.

Many restrictions have been tightened — particularly relating to property buffers between marijuana businesses and sensitive locations such as schools, parks, and other cannabis retailers. The buffer has been reworked from 1000 ft. to 500 ft., which may seem to be more favorable toward cannabis businesses, but now the distance is considered as the crow flies and from property edge to property edge (before, it was measured as a pedestrian’s route between building entrances).

Ultimately, the changes have negatively effected several business owners who had been preparing to apply for a license later this month. “Many of my clients’ spaces were fine this morning,” said Jana Weltzin, an attorney specializing in cannabis business. “And as of tonight, many are now back to square one after months of careful property location scouting and efforts.”

The outlying communities of Chugiak and Eagle River also faced severe zoning restrictions against legal cannabis, angering some residents who argue that, as Anchorage taxpayers, they deserve a fair chance at joining the regulated industry.

The Anchorage Assembly also considered and ultimately tabled a ban on marijuana clubs in the city, though it did pass regulations preventing on-site consumption in retail stores themselves. Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether or not regulations at the state level will allow for the continued existence of cannabis social clubs.

Starting February 24, the Alaska Marijuana Control Board will have application forms available on its website for hopeful recreational cannabis businesses.

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World’s First Cannabis Business Cruise Scheduled for October, 2016

2/10/2016

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Update, 9/12/16: We checked in recently to ask, but have not heard whether the cruise mentioned in this story will be moving forward. If you are looking for a cruise vacation to a cannabis-friendly location, we consider checking on Expedia and Priceline for cruises that include stops in Jamaica.

The U.S. cannabis industry has witnessed some amazing developments, but now marijuana entrepreneur James Lee is preparing to offer a deal that some years ago would have been considered little more than a pipe dream.

On October 24, 2016, a commercial-grade cruise liner filled with cannabis professionals will depart from Florida for Jamaica, where they will be greeted with an epic all-you-can-consume cannabis trade show specifically tailored for the business-minded cannabis consumer.

“This is definitely going to be something the industry has never seen before,” Lee told Ganjapreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Skill Stix and Dabvertising, but his true calling in cannabis may soon be tied to the hospitality industry.

To answer what is likely the first question on everyone’s mind: no — due to international laws, the cruise ship itself will not be cannabis-friendly.

“It’s take what we can get,” Lee said. “There is no way to legally have anything onboard the ship. It’s just impossible, the Coast Guard would seize the ship.”

The project has been in the works for about a year, he said. After facing countless rejections, Lee eventually enlisted the help of his friend’s company Canna-Travel to share in some of the outreach efforts. Together, the team landed a deal with what Lee claims is one of the best-positioned international cruise companies in the world. The deal was finalized February 3.

“We went as a duo to this major industry and said, ‘look, this is what’s on the line,'” Lee said. “‘We’ve got this money…. We have everything, down to designs for the placards they’ll wear around their necks. We have everything, we just need a ship.'”

More information  — including which major cruise line is involved, as well as likely ticket prices and sponsors for the event — will be announced sometime in March.

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Australia Set to Legalize Medical Cannabis for Clinical Trials

2/10/2016

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Australian legislators have introduced a bill to Parliament that would legalize the cultivation of cannabis for medical and scientific use in clinical trials, Reuters reports.

The legislation would provide for the creation of a national regulatory system for the licensing of medical cannabis growers and processors. Patients suffering from painful and chronic conditions would be able to get access to marijuana as part of clinical trials.

Current law prohibits cannabis cultivation, though certain Australian states have decided to begin clinical cultivation trials for medical and scientific purposes. Participants in the clinical trials have so far been forced to depend on costly imported products.

Australian Health Minister Sussan Ley said that “allowing controlled cultivation locally will provide the critical missing piece for a sustainable legal supply of safe medicinal cannabis products for Australian patients in the future.”

The new legislation would not make medical cannabis available to those who are not part of clinical trials, though the country will decide by the end of March as to whether it will modify the criteria for access.

Currently, the country allows patients suffering from chronic pain to access opium, and cannabis could be included in the same category.

Gaelan Bloomfield, manager at MMJ PhytoTech Ltd, Australia’s first publicly-listed medical cannabis company, said that “the market for medicinal cannabis in Australia is substantial. The number of patients that could be targeted could be people with epilepsy, Multiple sclerosis, while there is the other spectrum of people with chronic pain.”

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WA Department of Health Does Not Support Specialty Clinics for Medical Cannabis

2/10/2016

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Officials from the Washington State Department of Health issued an email this morning over the state’s medical cannabis Listserv that will surely spell disappointment for medical cannabis patients around the state.

When the Washington legislature passed the Cannabis Protection Act during the 2015 legislative session, the Department of Health was tasked with developing recommendations regarding potential specialty clinics that would be authorized to dispense medical cannabis to patients so long as the health care professionals involved are certified as medical marijuana doctors by the state.

The official recommendation was announced this morning: “The department does not support establishing medical marijuana specialty clinics in Washington at this time.”

Officials listed the following reasons as their rationale:

  • Healthcare practitioners cannot legally prescribe or dispense Schedule I controlled substances and would potentially risk criminal prosecution, as well as civil and financial liability.
  • Injured patients may be left without an adequate remedy if malpractice does occur.
  • Further research using accepted scientific protocols is needed.
  • Significant changes to existing licensing laws for commercial marijuana would be needed. Without such changes, practitioners at specialty clinics would not be able to access the marijuana they would later dispense to patients, which could present issues with supply.

Instead, the department recommends that individual practitioners take it upon themselves to familiarize themselves with the potential risks and benefits of medical cannabis. The full report is available on the department’s website.

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Martin Lee: Educating the Public About Medical Cannabis

2/10/2016

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Martin Lee is co-founder and director of the California-based Project CBD, a nonprofit dedicated to the promotion and publication of cannabis-focused research — particularly investigations into the medicinal applications of cannabidiol (CBD) and other components of the cannabis plant. Martin has worked as an award-winning investigative journalist, covering the development of medical cannabis for years in the pages of O’Shaughnessy’s. He also authored Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana, and before that, Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD. He received the Pope Foundation Journalism Award award for his investigative journalism in 1994.

Martin recently joined Ganjapreneur podcast host Shango Los for a discussion about how the conversation around cannabis — particularly CBD and the plant’s apparent myriad medicinal uses — has been slowly evolving in mainstream media and the overall American society.

Subscribe to the Ganjapreneur podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.

Listen to the podcast

Read the transcript

Shango Los: Hi there and welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, I am your host Shango Los. The Ganjapreneur.com podcast gives us an opportunity to speak directly to entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product developers and cannabis medicine researchers, all focused on making the most of cannabis normalization. As your host, I do my best to bring you original cannabis industry ideas that will ignite your own entrepreneurial spark and give you actual information to improve your business strategy and improve your health and the health of cannabis patients everywhere.

Today, my guest is Martin Lee. Martin Lee is co-founder and director of Project CBD, a California based non profit dedicated to promoting and publicizing research into the medical uses of cannabidiol and the other components of the cannabis plant. He is author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana. Martin also co-authored his first book, Acid Dreams, the CIA, LSD and the 60’s Rebellion in 1985. As a journalist, Martin covered the medical cannabis movement for years in the pages of O’Shaughnessy’s and he was awarded the pope foundation award for investigative journalism in 1994.

Thanks for being on the show Martin.

Martin Lee: My pleasure.

Shango Los: So Martin, well many of our audience folk are familiar with the basics CBD and the endo-cannabinoid system, it’s barely been discussed prior to the last four or five years when it began to gain a wider media attention. What about the American zeitgeist has prevented CBD to be popular until just now?

Martin Lee: Well it’s interesting. When we first launched Project CBD six years ago, we had a sense that it could be a real game changer for the medical marijuana situation, that it could help to liberate cannabis from the confines of the drug abuse paradigm. I think events have born us out on that but it really took the CNN broadcast in the summer of 2013 which showed the dramatic outcomes for children with pediatric epilepsy when they were administered CBD rich oil. That was a tipping point.

I think the zeitgeist was ready for that and we’ve been in the midst of long standing pro-cannabis cultural shift but I think CBD has accentuated that shift quite dramatically and really changed parameters of the game so to speak. I think the zeitgeist was being prepared for awhile and people are ready for this I think because there was great dissatification prevalent for the typical medical options, corporate medical options, big pharma and so forth. So it’s not surprising to us that CBD sort of triggered a popular upsurge of interest and I think that will continue. We see a big surge of newcomers so to speak into the medical marijuana milieu who are looking for cannabis products, cannabis remedies that don’t necessarily get them high because many people don’t enjoy the cannabis high and those that don’t can now benefit therapeutically from certain cannabis strains, certain cannabis products because CBD is not psychoactive the way THC is. It can neutralize or at least lessen the psycho-activity of THC so it means that all those people who for one reason or other were not inclined to reach for cannabis as an option therapeutically now can do so.

I think that bodes well for the future in terms of the medical marijuana situation.

Shango Los: You know that’s a really good point Martin. When you start allowing people to find out a new way to heal themselves, that in and of itself will change people’s expectations. Up to just a few years ago, people were only thinking about cannabis as an intoxicant only and the fact that CBD is not psychoactive and actually you know we’ve seen all the images now of it healing children, which really gets to people’s hearts.

Were you involved at all with Sanjay Gupta coming to this realization with CBD or were you watching it like the rest of us and seeing an opportunity now to do more outreach for education?

Martin Lee: Well at Project CBD we knew several months ahead of time that that program was coming because we were in touch with the doctor who was guiding little Charlotte and her family in terms of the cannabis therapeutic approach that they were pursuing so we knew that was coming, we expected it but there’s no way one could really be prepared for the onslaught that happened afterwards.

That really dramatically changed the conversation, the national conversation about cannabis. I mean prior to that show, that public conversations, the public discourse was still bogged down in questions like well does medical marijuana really work? Is it just a front for stoners? It’s just an excuse for people to get high, that sort of thing. What kind of damage will it do to my child’s brain if they’re exposed? Those were the key questions that were being discussed, let’s say before CBD if we could put it that way.

Now the key question is not does it work but how we can best use cannabis therapeutically for maximum benefit. Not what harm will it do my child but how can I access CBD rich oil to save my child’s life so there’s been a dramatic change there and I say that this shift has been long in coming. It did take that national television broadcast to function as a tipping point but you know a lot had been happening before that to lay the ground work to make that tipping point possible.

Shango Los: It’s a shame that you know it had to be sick children that was necessary to bring that to the forefront but at the same time we’re all grateful that it has played out as it has because now CBD is increased in awareness and everyone has got an opportunity to participate and seek out the medicine. You know we had Dr. Ethan Russo on the program discussing endo-cannabinoid deficiency last year and his ideas were very clear yet because he is a scientist, he speaks in a language that is a bit unfamiliar to most lay people. For yourself as both a journalist and a CBD evangelist, what do you see as some of the challenges of translating the benefits of the detailed CBD molecule to the general public so that they can learn en masse?

Martin Lee: Well the endo-cannabinoid system is quite fascinating as an intellectual area, a scientific area but it’s true. It’s difficult for non-scientists to understand sometimes what scientists are talking about. Scientists tend to talk to each other. It’s kind of like a hermetically sealed environment and I think that’s one of the roles that Project CBD had always envisioned for itself is to translate the science so that it’s accessible to the medical marijuana community, the public at large and I’m not including doctors and physicians in that who are not necessarily steeped in this science but how can we sum up the endo-cannabinoid system. If you want to talk about the particulars, we would think of three components.

There are receptors in the brain that respond pharmacologically to compounds in cannabis. The receptors in the brain and throughout the body. There are also androgynous compounds that are marijuana like molecules that our own brain, our body creates. They’re similar in effect to the compounds in the plant but exist naturally in all mammals. Actually in all animals but for insects. Then there are also enzymes in the body that help to create these androgynous compounds and help to break them down. It modulates the levels of our own cannaboids and Dr. Ethan Ruso has made a very important contribution with this notion of endo-cannabinoid deficiency. That if we are lacking or we have low levels for one reason or another. Maybe it’s genetics, maybe it’s the wear and tear of stress throughout one’s life that our levels of our own marijuana like molecules become depleted and then we become very vulnerable to all sorts of diseases because the endo-cannaboid system has a neuroprotective function. It literally protects cells against degeneration.

I know we’re kind of getting into science speak but I just think of the endo-cannaboid system as the fulcrum of health and as we live out our years and accumulate stress because stress wears down the endo-cannabinoid system. People as they get older tend to get sick. While it’s not simply a matter of depleted endo-cannabinoids, there are other factors obviously at play. This is very very important physiological system because it regulates pretty much all the other systems. You know when we were taking high school biology we were taught about that we had a skeletal system, an immune system, a reproductive system, hormonal, et cetera et cetera but we never were taught that we had an endo-cannaboid system because we didn’t know about this scientifically until really the 1990’s and still it’s not even taught in medicals schools which is quite shocking because it’s so fundamental to health.

Shango Los: Sure is. Yeah.

Martin Lee: I think of it as like the dowel of health, the endo-cannabinoids. It’s the balance point. If you have a healthy balanced endo-cannabinoid system you will be a healthy human being.

Shango Los: It always reminds me a lot of the term tutonify in oriental medicine where it’s not that you’re pumping something up or you’re not that your depleting it is that you’re looking for a balance in the middle where all of the systems can run effectively and the endo-cannabinoid system seems to be that tantivying system that helps all the other systems click along.

Martin Lee: Yes there’s actually the phrase endo-cannaboid tone but what’s interesting when we speak about the cannabis plant and what’s all important here is the whole plant and how it interacts with our own physiology and how it interacts with the endo-cannabinoid system. The cannabis plant is a very unusual plant. It’s what called an herbal adaptogen and one of the features of that it has a way of balancing one’s system so that it basically can calm the hyper, it can energize the sluggish. It has a way of balancing both excess and deficiency so the same strain, literally the same remedy can have different effects for different people depending on what their condition is and what their imbalance is and that’s one of the beauties and the magic of whole plant cannabis.

Shango Los: Thank you for that explanation Martin. It’s very insightful to realize that the same plant can effect two people differently. It certainly makes it more challenging to recommend strains to friends but it sure makes a lot more sense with how our bodies interact with it. It’s time for us to take a short break. We’ll be right back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com pod cast.

Welcome back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com pod cost. I am your host, Shango Los and our guest this week is Martin Lee, author of the book Smoke Signals and founder of Project CBD. So Martin, before the break we were talking about endo-cannabinoid deficiency and the powers of cannabidiol and cannabidiol is just one of the cannabinoids in cannabis. Most of the plant remains unresearched but as a researcher I’m sure that you’re starting to get ideas of what else we might uncover in the plant.

Can you tell us a little bit about the yet unresearched aspects of the plant that we’re looking forward to?

Martin Lee: There’s a whole world there, it’s a very good questions and it’s a fascinating area. If we just focus on the cannabinoids in particular, there is about a hundred different cannabinoids of which CBD and THC are the most well known and well studies. There are others. One that’s coming up now on the radar is THCV, it’s kind of a variation on THC. THCV has the opposite effect in some ways for THC in that it, well THC stimulates the munchies, THCV has the opposite effect, it kind of mitigates appetite. It’s beginning to be looked at as something possibly for metabolic syndrome and obesity. We have to keep in mind that cannabis isn’t just cannabinoids in the plant. There are flavanoids, there are terpenes and all these different components of the plant have specific medical attributes but when you combine them all together they create what scientists call the entourage effect or ensemble effect so that the therapeutic impact of the whole plant is greater than the sum of the parts.

Just looking at the terpenes for example, these are the essential oils that give the plant its smell. CBD and THC have no smell. We all know that cannabis has a very very potent smell and each strain has it’s own unique smell and there’s something about that that’s very important. The smell that resonates for the patient is probably the one that works for best for them, the one that will resonate with their own physiology but there is for example a terpene called betacaraethylene. There’s actually a terpene called betacaraethylene that’s very prominent in many different cannabis strains and betacaraethylen is unique among terpenes in the plant in that it’s the one and only one that we know of that actually binds directly to one of the cannabinoid receptors. There’s two known receptor systems.

CB1 receptor systems are primarily in the brain and central nervous nervous system. It mediates psycho-activity and many other things but the CB2 receptor, very very important. It’s prominent in immune cells and the peripheral nervous system and metabolic tissue and this betacaraethylene terpene binds directly to the CB2 receptor which modulates inflammation and inflammation underlies so many different conditions that it’s very important if you have substance that will actually turn down inflammation and if it hits that CB2 receptor, that’s what it will do. It modulates inflammation and so then I think that something in the future we’re likely to see in cannabis products, is something with a little extra betacaraethylene added to it and betacaraethylene incidentally is available in many different herbs, not just cannabis. It’s very prominent in echinacea for example. Echinacea is betacaraethylene rich so that’s one of the reasons why as an herb echinacean is know for something that’s good for the immune system. It’s actually in many other herbs, black pepper for example.

So that’s just one aspect of what’s possible with scientific research into cannabis. Looking at all the different aspects of the plant and we can modulate by looking at all different aspects of the plant and what’s in it. We can kind of tailor made by looking at all different aspects of the plant and different components in it, we can tailor different products to suit specific therapeutic needs and that’s very exciting.

Shango Los: Do you think that with the help of technology we now have been able to tease apart all the different components of the cannabis plant that we know what is there and no it’s just a matter of going through and researching the different aspects or are we still at a point where there are components of the plants that we have not even identified yet and so we’re still unpacking the plant to know what’s even there?

Martin Lee: Well I think the latter is true, that we still, there’s a lot mystery to the plant. One very exciting area of technology is a gene sequencing of the cannabis plant. The cannabis plant has been gene sequenced so has the human being and I think one area that’s going to be gaining more prominence in the future is matching what we know about the cannabinoids in the plant based on the gene sequencing and figuring out how that relates to human beings. There are conditions such as epilepsy for example where scientists now can sequence the genes of an epileptic patient and find out what genes have what’s called polymorphisms, or mutations in the gene. They’re finding out now for example why it is that CBD rich oil works better for certain children with pediatric epilepsy and why it has no effect on others. Why it doesn’t seem to help others because they can see what’s happening in the child in terms of what genes are mutated.

For Dravet syndrome for example and Doose, another epileptic condition, pediatric, that’s very very damaging for a child, they respond very very well to CBD rich oil. For some other people or some other children, CBD might not be their molecule. It might THC or THCA, THC in it’s acid form which is non-psychoactive by the way. That’s how it actually appears in the plant. For the plant to get you high, you have to heat it. This is a fascinating area where we’re just at the beginning of, we’re in threshold I think of major discoveries that will match the specific components of the plant to what is happening specifically with people and their conditions.

Shango Los: One of the questions that I get all the time is what ratio of CBD to THC works for particular conditions. For example, something that’s a two to one tends to work out really well with folks with Parkinson’s but that would actually make many children lethargic in dealing with their seizures. When you are explaining CBD to THC ratios to people so that they can really grok it, what do you tell them?

Martin Lee: Well I think it’s best not think of the ratios in terms of matching it to a particular condition. What’s important is to match the ratio to a person and at Project CBD we do a lot of workshops, staff training at medical marijuana dispensaries and we always tell the budtenders, as they’re called, the people who are dealing directly with the patients, they’re job given the fact that they really don’t have medical training is not to cure an illness or a disease but simply to help a patient find a comfortable entry point into cannabis therapeutics.

For people who are naive with respect to cannabis, maybe senior citizens, maybe young children, likely a good starting ratio for them would be something that would be CBD dominant with very little THC. It won’t be psychoactive like THC, it won’t get them high or stoned and it’s kind of an easy way for people to start with cannabis therapeutics and for some people that might be the perfect ending places as well. For others who are comfortable with THC because one’s sensitivity to THC is all important here. To what extent one likes to get high, they might start on a ratio that’s one to one, equal parts CBD to THC which may have ultimately a greater therapeutic impact because CBD and THC synergize, they potentate each other, they make each other more a stronger for different therapeutic applications and that’s been show in many different scientific experiments.

Really it’s a matter of what’s the right way for a person to use cannabis in terms of the ratio, not so much what is the perfect ratio for a condition. I’m not sure if we’ll ever find the perfect ratio for a condition because ultimately we’re not treating conditions, we’re treating human beings.

Shango Los: I think that this is a good time for us to plug the great section on your website that talks about conditions. We were speaking in the first segment about how Project CBD seeks to educate folks and make it easier for them to learn about CBD and early on I was continually encouraging people to go to the pubmed.gov website and look up the different THC and cannabis related scientific research that has gone on and sometimes people get to the website and I would just lose them. But then I found the section at projectcbd.org. When you click on conditions, it lists all the different, well not all the different conditions but many of the popular ailments that people are trying to find relief from and when you click on the particular ailment, you’ve done the research work for them at pubmed.gov and it just automatically brings you all of the most recent scientific research on that particular ailment. If you’re listening and you have an ailment and you kind of want to get right to learning, that’s a great place to go so thank you for having that on your site Martin.

Martin Lee: Well we listed fifty different conditions and actually there’s more that could be listed but the requirement for being listed on the website is that has to be some scientific research. I think anecdotal research and reports is very important and very relevant. The cut off for us is there has to be some science there. I should emphasize that most of the scientific research with respect to CBD and cannabinoids and cannabis is focused on individual components of the plant and that is not involving actual whole plant material. It involves individual components of the plant and it’s generally given to animals as pre-clinical research so it’s test tubes, petri dishes, maybe human cell lines but there’s not a lot of clinical data because of prohibition has prohibited clinical research by and large involving cannabis.

That’s important to keep in mind with the provides of that what a single molecule does to the human brain, whether it be CBD, THC or anything else, is different from what the whole plant does. We draw a very important distinction between CBD and CBD-rich cannabis and ultimately Project CBD advocates for whole plant cannabis therapeutics so we coined the phrase I should say my colleague Fred Gardener coined the phrase CBD-rich very early on when the first strains that had a lot of CBD in them were re-discovered in northern California in 2009. Rather than calling it high-CBD we wanted to get away from the connotation of high so we called it CBD-rich.

Shango Los: Right on. That makes a lot of sense. It’s time for us to take another short break. We’ll be right back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com pod cast.

Welcome back. You are listening to the ganjapreneur.com pod cast. I am your host Shango Los and our guest this week is Martin Lee, author of the book Smoke Signals and founder of Project CBD. Martin, in the fist segment we were talking about your early days O’Shaughnessy’s, the intense cannabis journal the covers the science behind cannabis and 2010 you and your partner that are at O’Shaughnessy’s, Fred Gardener, decided to launch Project CBD. Your role as a journalist on the cannabis beat for O’Shaughnessy’s and being an educator using O’Shaughnessy’s as the vehicle sounds to me as very similar to your now role as a global educator with Project CBD. What was the opportunity that you and Fred saw that caused you to want to take the step from simply reporting the news in O’Shaughnessy’s to doing outreach to educate folks?

Martin Lee: Well it is true that O’Shaughnessy’s gave birth to Project CBD in 2010 and I’m very thankful for that and Fred Gardener is currently the editor of O’Shaughnessy’s and recently came out with a monumental fantastic issue that anyone who is interested in this area whether as an entrepreneur, a patient or a doctor should get a hold of it. It is a massive issue with phenomenal information, cutting edge science and you can go to beyondTHC.com to find that. In the spirit of O’Shaughnessy’s both Project CBD and O’Shaughnessy’s have tried to speak to the layperson, speak without the heavy scientific jargon to make those concepts that we learn about from the scientists, make them accessible to many people. We decided that once we realize that CBD rich strain were available CBD medicine would become available as a result for medical marijuana patients, we felt that is just warranted it’s own special focus and that’s why we launched Project CBD. Project CBD does have an international audience. We get inquiries from all over the world. I think there was one month we got inquiries from over a hundred and fifty different countries and typically people are seeking information and there is a lot of confusion out there for various reasons.

Often times people contact us and say are they looking for CBD, they want CBD, the medical part of the plant, not the THC, not the recreational part and we have to tell them you know THC is very medical. They work best together and you don’t want just CBD alone, you need THC and CBD together to get the best therapeutic effect. That’s one of the many misconceptions that we try to debunk and so our role as educators has evolved as the whole situation has evolved. Initially it was all about letting people know that there was more to the plant than just THC, that there was more to cannabis therapeutics than just getting high. These days there is a lot more going on now and we focus on really the nuts and bolts of what patients need to do, what they need to know when they’re seeking out CBD rich products, what they need to look for to determine if it’s a good quality product and what they need to talk to their physicians about because physicians tend to be poorly educated.

What they need to do basically to pursue a cannabis therapeutic regimen.

Shango Los: You know we’re down to our last two minutes but I wanted to make sure that we talked about your book, Smoke Signals, which has opened the door to cannabis therapeutics to so many people and those are both patients and pharmaceutical executives both. With normalization expanding, do you think there’s still going to be a place for citizen science and cannabis breeding and healing techniques or do you foresee that cannabis is going to become the domain of pharmaceutical companies who have access to the advanced technology to outpace neighborhood herbalists.

Martin Lee: It’s going to be very interesting how all this unfolds. You remember, cannabis therapeutics has been with us really since before the written word. You know cannabis has a been a friend of humanity since long ago. This is not going to go away. The whole plant cannabis as a therapy will not disappear no matter what but it’s going to be interesting to see how it plays out legally, how the regulatory regime gets imposed. I think it’s very very important that in addition to whatever will happen with Big Pharma and there’s no doubt that CBD as an isolate will become available as an approved just as THC already is in the form of Marinol, a schedule three drug right now. CBD which is not yet legal federally, is not legal in all fifty states in that regard I think one day will become so with a prescription just like THC is.

The problem is it’s the arrogance of Big Pharma. It’s the sense that they feel that their way is the best way when in fact when we look at the studies that have been done coming from Israel recently comparing actually the therapeutic efficacy of single molecule CBD, meaning the Big Pharma way, and whole plant CBD-rich oil, without going into all the details because we don’t have time, the conclusion is very very clear that CBD-rich oil, whole plant CBD is more efficacious and better for patients than CBD as a single molecule and there’s many reasons. I can explain that, that’s a whole other show. Maybe we’ll talk about that some other time.

Shango Los: That’s great and that is a show that we will want all of the legislators in the states where they are passing CBD-only laws, we’ll want them to hear that to realize that whole plant medicine and taking advantage of the entourage effect is the best way to go. Well, that’s all the time we have for today. Thanks for being on the show Martin.

Martin Lee: Thank you very much. It’s been a pleasure.

Shango Los: You can find out more about Martin Lee and Project CBD at their website. ProjectCBD.org. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur podcast in the podcast section at Ganjapreneur.com and in the apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.come website you can find the latest cannabis news, product reviews, and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. You can also find this show on the I Heart Radio Network app, bringing the Ganjapreneur podcast to sixty million mobile devices. Do you have a company that wants to reach our national audience of cannabis enthusiasts? Email grow@ganjapreneur.com to find out how. Thanks to Brasco for producing our show, I am your host Shango Los.

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Mormon Senator Pushes Medical Cannabis Bill Despite Opposition from LDS Church

2/10/2016

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A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Utah proposed by Senator Mark Madsen — who is also a proud Mormon — now faces new opposition from the LDS Church.

In a state where 288 people died from opioid overdoses in 2014, Madsen has fought to change the perception of cannabis among his colleagues as a safe alternative to potentially dangerous pain medications. He himself suffered an accidental overdose in 2007, when a fentanyl patch burst and Madsen had to be revived by 911.

When Madsen was approached with the issue of legalizing marijuana oil to ease the suffering of children with severe epilepsy, he became a proponent of medical cannabis. But the Church’s public announcement Monday that it would oppose any attempt to legalize marijuana has already set some Utah lawmakers against the bill.

The LDS Church holds a lot of sway over the political tide in Utah, so Madsen has attempted to meet with church leaders to discuss their specific objections. But the Church will only cite “unintended consequences” as their reason for opposing legalization.

But Madsen thinks Utah is owed more. “The people that are affected by it, I think, might be entitled to some kind of explanation,” he said. 

Despite the church’s opposition, Sen. Madsen says he will continue to push legalization because most Utah voters support it. “It would be immoral to back down,” he said.

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Florida Revises Full-Strength Medical Cannabis Bill for Terminally Ill Patients

2/09/2016

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A bill that would legalize full-strength medical cannabis for those suffering from terminal illnesses was revived in the Florida legislature Monday.

The bill, which for months was legislatively sidelined, includes a rewrite that sets the number of eligible producers at five.

The House Appropriations Committee approved HB307 by a vote of 9-2, and is headed to the House. If it passes, terminally ill patients will be allowed access to medical cannabis produced by one of the five authorized growers.

In November, as part of the Compassionate Medical Cannabis Act that passed in 2014, the Department of Health granted licenses to five nurseries that have been operating for at least 30 years and can grow at least 400,000 plants. As of now, they will only be allowed to produce low-THC cannabis.

The House bill that would let these nurseries produce full-strength cannabis is sponsored by Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fort Walton Beach) and Katie Edwards (D-Plantation).

“If you have a year left to live, you’re going to try whatever you think may be helpful,” said Rep. Shawn Harrison (R-Tampa). “Frankly, you’re not going to care whether it’s legal or not.”

Although allowing terminally-ill patients is clearly a step in the right direction for Florida, many argue that limiting the number of licensed growers to five is economically and morally shortsighted.

Cathy Jordan, 65, who suffers from Lou Gehrig’s disease, said that although she has been willing to grow her own cannabis illegally, “More than five dispensaries should be available because there are a lot of children that need your [the House Criminal Justice Committee’s] help.”

Jody James, speaking on behalf of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, said that “we want to see patients getting this and my biggest concern is that when you only have five dispensaries, they are going to have a market. They are cornering that market.”

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Obama 2017 Budget Would Lift Restrictions on D.C. Cannabis; Give DOJ More Power

2/09/2016

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President Obama has released a $4 trillion budget for 2017 that proposes Washington, D.C. be allowed to spend its tax money to implement retail cannabis regulations.

The budget would lift current restrictions on the use of local funds by D.C. lawmakers to create a recreational cannabis regulatory system. The Republican-led Congress passed a spending bill at the end of 2014 — and again in 2015 — that forbade the District from using federal or local money either to legalize cannabis or to reduce criminal penalties associated with its possession or recreational use.

President Obama proposed lifting the restriction in the 2016 budget as well, but the restrictions were re-enacted in December 2015.

D.C. residents voted to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2014, but lawmakers have been unable to enact any new legislation due to the restrictions.

The 2017 budget would allow the use of local D.C. funds to effect regulatory change on cannabis by defining the funds which the District cannot use as “federal” funds only.

In addition, the 2017 budget proposes removing a section of the current law that stops the Justice Department from interfering with state medical cannabis legislation. In a departure from his generally hands-off stance on state medical marijuana laws, President Obama’s proposed budget would allow the Justice Department to use federal funds to interfere with the implementation of state medical marijuana programs as it sees fit.

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Shinnecock Nation Approves Plan to Cultivate and Dispense Cannabis in New York

2/09/2016

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On Saturday, the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s general council voted 71% to 29% on a measure to grow and process medical marijuana in New York State. The tribe plans to build a cultivation facility and dispensary on reservation land, pending approval from the state.

The tribe’s interest began in 2014, when a federal memorandum called the Cole Memorandum was released, detailing how tribes could establish medical marijuana programs in states where it had been legalized.

Tribal Trustee Chairman Brian Polite said that a cannabis regulatory division will oversee the project. The tribe has also chartered a company to construct the multi-million-dollar cultivation and dispensary facilities, funded by what Polite calls a “private investor.”

New York’s medical marijuana law has attracted intense criticism from medical marijuana advocates, as it only allows five registered organizations to manufacture and distribute cannabis, and only twenty dispensaries to operate across the state. Pending state approval, though, the rule doesn’t apply to the Shinnecocks, who are their own sovereign nation.

The project is expected to create 80-100 jobs and a generous amount of revenue for the tribe, which tribal officials plan to use for substance abuse prevention programs.

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Oregon Task Force Calls for a State-Funded Cannabis Research Institute

2/08/2016

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A task force of Oregon state officials, scientists, and leading physicians has called for Oregon to fund the creation of a cannabis research institute, The Oregonian‘s Noelle Crombie reports.

The recommendation was presented in a report published on Monday, which calls for the creation of the Oregon Institute for Cannabis Research and also the clarifying of expectations held for licensed medical professionals in Oregon.

“This institute will position Oregon as a leader in cannabis research and serve as an international hub for what will soon be a rapidly accelerating scientific field,” the report reads. “No other single initiative could do as much to strengthen the Oregon cannabis industry and to support the needs of Oregon medical marijuana patients.”

The task force’s proposal includes putting aside a small portion of retail cannabis taxes to help support the otherwise privately-funded research institute. This is the first case in which a proposed cannabis research operation would be granted an ongoing stream of funds from the state, allowing the project some much-needed longevity.

In general, cannabis research in the U.S. is made difficult by heavy federal restrictions on Schedule 1 substances. The need for an increased understanding of cannabis and its various psychoactive and medicinal effects, however, has become increasingly more apparent.

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Rhode Island Lawmakers to Review Legalization Bill

2/08/2016

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This week, the Rhode Island legislature will, for the second year in a row, review a bill to legalize marijuana in the state, and regulate and tax it like alcohol.

Last year’s proposed legislation, a combination of Senate Bill 510 and House Bill 5777 known as the Marijuana Regulation, Control and Taxation Act, garnered wide support among voters in the state and was expected to pass in the legislature. But last June, lawmakers called a recess and tabled the bill before it could be voted on.

This year, Democrats Rep. Scott Slater (D-Providence) and Sen. Joshua Miller (D-Cranston) will once again introduce the bill, which would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana flower and a single plant. The bill would also establish a system for licensing retail stores, cultivation operations, testing labs, and set health and safety standards, along with labeling requirements.

But the stakes are higher this year, as Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo recently unveiled a marijuana tax proposal specifically targeting the 10,000 medical marijuana patients in the state — including a sky-high tax rate of $150-$350 per marijuana plant. The plan ignores the far greater revenue potential of recreational users, who theoretically number over 100,000, should cannabis prohibition end.

SB 510/HB 5777 would tax recreational users, likely generating far more tax revenue than the proposed $8.4 million the Governor could squeeze out of medical patients.

The bill has widespread support in the state from public health officials, doctors, and law enforcement. A poll conducted last year showed more than 57% of Rhode Island voters support legalization, while only 35% oppose.

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Detroit Dispensary Application Process Starts March 1

2/08/2016

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Come March, Detroit dispensaries will have a 30 day window during which they can apply for a medical cannabis license to legally remain in operation, as per a controversial set of ordinances passed by the city council last year.

The application process begins at 9 a.m. on March 1, and applications will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis.

Melvin Butch Hollowel of the Detroit Corporation Counsel said there are 211 unlicensed dispensaries currently operating in Detroit. “We wanted to make it clear in writing. Put all of the centers on notice,” he said, so information about the upcoming changes has been sent to all of Detroit’s dispensaries.

The new ordinance places 1,000-foot buffer zones between dispensaries — the same buffer will also apply to dispensary locations near city parks, schools and churches. Successful applicants will already have a site, security plan and background checks in place. Medical cannabis licenses in Detroit will need to be renewed on an annual basis.

Applications that are denied can be resubmitted with an appeal.

Companies that are caught violating medical cannabis licensing laws may face fines of up to $500 and/or 90 days in jail.

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What Are Cannabis Topicals?

2/05/2016

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Lotion, shampoo, face and body wash, sunscreen, lip balm, pain and antibacterial ointment, acne cream, and massage oil. These are the most commonly used transdermal topical applications — and all have at some point in time been infused with cannabis to create the increasingly popular trend that is cannabis topical products.

A cannabis topical is any treatment rub or oil derived from cannabis or hemp that is applied directly to the surface of the body. In order to understand why cannabis is so critical for general health maintenance, and why topicals are often ideal for relieving certain symptoms, one must first become familiar with the endocannabinoid system.

Topicals & The Endocannabinoid System

Endocannabinoids are simply cannabinoids that our bodies naturally produce. It has been discovered that endocannabinoids help stabilize any off-balanced functions that may disrupt health. The endocannabinoid system is located throughout the body and is composed collectively of endogenous cannabinoids, cannabinoid receptors, biosynthetic pathways and metabolizing enzymes. Endocannabinoids bind to the receptors, fitting like a key in a lock activating messages of repair to be sent via chemical pathways, depending on what each specific cell needs in that moment.

No matter the need, the goal of the endocannabinoids remains the same: Homeostasis. And the phytocannabinoids found in cannabis plants, such as CBD and THC, mimic endocannabinoids, much like duplicate keys would fit into the same lock. In other words, cannabis provides an external source of nutrients that our bodies already produce.

What Do Cannabis Topicals Do?

The difference between accessing these cannabinoids through topicals and attaining them via ingestion or inhalation is that topicals do not allow cannabinoids to access the brain, therefore do not trigger psychotropic effects. By dissolving cannabis into fat-soluble substances (such as coconut oil or shea butter), the cannabinoids become ready to enter cell membranes. Cannabinoid receptors are located in nerve and mast cells within the skin, allowing the relief to be direct and immediate.

Cannabis topicals come in many different consistencies including lotions, balms, oils, salves, sprays, cleansers, alcohol solutions and ointments. THC and CBD patches have also been invented that are applied directly to the skin.

cannabis topicals

Due to the stability of cannabinoids, cannabis topicals have been shown to treat a variety of symptoms including pain relief, muscle soreness, tension, inflammation, itching, headaches, MRSA, burns, bug bites, hemorrhoids, sore throat, cramping, dry skin, allergic skin reactions, post-herpes neuralgia. Topicals may also aid in the regeneration of cells, thereby encouraging wounds to heal more quickly.

By adding specific ingredients that work synergistically with cannabinoids, such as different terpenes, different essential oils, and hemp seed oil, specific relief can be targeted even more effectively. Using hemp seed oil without any additional cannabinoids can still be considered “cannabis topical,” and is very commonly used. Despite the inability to ignite the Endocannabinoid system directly, hemp seed oil is nutrient-dense and contains all of the essential amino acids in a desirable ratio for the body to use, making it very beneficial in maintaining all aspects of health.

Because cannabis topical applications cannot alter the state of mind, it is considered the safest form of cannabinoid access. With no possible overdose, there is no restriction on who can benefit from using these topicals. Incorporating these vital nutrients into our everyday lives is essential for the continuous renewal of our health. Next time you need relief, give cannabis topicals a try.

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Marley Natural Cannabis Products Now Available in California

2/05/2016

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The Marley Natural cannabis brand — first announced in 2014 as part of an arrangement between reggae legend Bob Marley’s family and the marijuana moguls behind Privateer Holdings — is finally hitting dispensary and retail store shelves across the U.S.

Marley Natural is offering four different strains of cannabis flower and oils: Marley Green, Red, Gold and Black. Reportedly, each strain was strategically developed to produce certain thematically-appropriate sensations when smoked. The products are available today in certain California dispensaries, but are expected to soon be available in other, normalized states as logistics for the world’s first international cannabis brand are hammered out.

“We’re not only natural in how we source our products and how they’re made; it’s important for us to demonstrate to people that the herb can be a natural part of life, which was the way Bob viewed it,” said Marley Natural spokesperson Zack Hutson. “So that’s what we’re hoping to do really with this brand — help people understand the herb the way Bob did.”

The Marley Natural product lines also include a series of body care products, as well as pipes crafted from “sustainably grown American Black Walnut wood pieces.”

Some individuals, however, do not see the Marley Natural brand as something that Bob Marley would have actually supported.

“Given Marley’s anti-capitalist, anti-establishment identity, the idea of having a company [logo] that evokes the name of centuries-old pirates, and a very negative tradition of imperialist assault… sends a lot of the wrong messages,” said Mike Alleyne, a professor in music recording in Texas and expert on reggae music and culture. “I’m not sure if anyone involved in the whole process is thinking about it, but it’s not a good conceptual foundation for this enterprise.”

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